(This blog post first appeared on March 12, 2012)

I immediately found this street scene in Wuhan, China, to be compelling, and wanted to make a photograph of it without attracting too much attention to myself in the process, lest a subjects of the photograph might object. As a result, I spent quite a bit of time at this intersection before I trained my camera on this particular scene. By the time I made this photograph the men in the scene had lost interest in me. As a result they had returned to their waiting … Waiting for Work.One man is a bike messenger and another is a messenger on a motorcycle. Most, however, have simple, old fashioned by U. S. standards, bow saws. These saws are used for cutting the bamboo poles that are widely used for scaffolding on construction projects in China. One man is wiping his brow and others have pant legs or shirts rolled up … a testament to the heat and humidity of the day. Still another man is revealing a bit of personality as he hikes his pants up. With modern China rising all around these men, they are doing what they must to get by from day-to-day … which, thereby, adds a social documentation element to this street photograph.

This is another entry in my long term, ongoing, With People project. I’d love to hear your thoughts about photographing people in public places.